EXCLUSIVE-Hot tech start-up Box picks banks for '14 IPO -sources

(Adds IPO data, background)

By Nicola Leske and Olivia Oran

NEW YORK Nov 8 Data storage company Box, one of
the most highly anticipated IPO candidates in Silicon Valley,
has selected banks to lead a proposed initial public offering
that could come in the first half of 2014, according to three
people familiar with the matter.

The fast-growing technology start-up has selected Morgan
Stanley, Credit Suisse and JPMorgan Chase & Co
to lead the offering that could raise around $500
million, the people said.

Representatives for Box, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse
did not immediately respond to requests for comment. JPMorgan
declined to comment.

Box is one of several high-profile start-ups gearing up for
an IPO, on the heels of a successful debut by Twitter Inc
on Thursday, which raised more than $1.8 billion for
the microblogging company.

Other closely watched startups which may be exploring an IPO
include mobile payments company Square, Uber and Pinterest.

A public float for Box would come amid the strongest dollar
volume for U.S. IPOs since 2000.

U.S. companies have raised $50.7 billion in proceeds year to
date, a 26 percent increase compared to a year earlier,
according to Thomson Reuters data.

This year is also the strongest year for the number of U.S.
new listings since 2004.

Box, started in 2005 by University of Southern California
drop-out Aaron Levie and his childhood friend Dylan Smith, has
been valued at more than $1.2 billion by private investors,
although it remains unclear whether the company is profitable.

The online storage company has tapped into growing demand by
professional workers who increasingly want to share documents
across different computers and has been locked in fierce
competition with a number of rivals, including Dropbox, another
privately held firm that is valued at $4 billion.

Box and Dropbox, which provide users with free storage but
charge fees for additional space, have been able to steadily
gain market share even though tech giants like Google Inc
, Microsoft Corp and Apple Inc all
offer their own versions of file-sharing utilities.

In 2011, Box rebuffed a takeover offer by Citrix Systems
worth more than $500 million.

(Reporting by Nicola Leske and Olivia Oran in New York;
additional reporting by Gerry Shih in San Francisco. Editing by
Soyoung Kim, Gerald E. McCormick and Bernard Orr)

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